If you’re not up to speed on the concept and the competitors, here’s where we set the rules and the brackets. Eight of the world’s best detectives versus eight spies, assassins and anti-heroes in a fight-to-the-death contest of wits and toughness. In brief, each hero is dropped into a random setting — not their home…
Mysteries and thrillers, by nature, are populated by tough guys. Detectives who hunt down serial killers. Spies who uncover dangerous traitors. Assassins who take out the worst bad guys on the planet — and anti-heroes like Dexter and Hannibal Lecter with enough goodness in their dark hearts that they sometimes turn their characters around and…
The last Sherlock Holmes’ story, “The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place,” was published in April, 1927, in The Strand Magazine. But long before that, 1911 to be exact, Monsignor Ronald A. Knox presented a paper to the Gryphon Club in London entitled “Studies in the Literature of Sherlock Holmes.” That paper was the cornerstone of…
There I sat in Caffé Trieste on Vallejo Street in The City, attempting to channel the spirit of Francis Ford Coppola (he worked on the script for The Godfather in this very café) as I pored over my latest manuscript, but it just wasn’t working. Why, you may ask, was I suffering the slings and…
“Mr. Leavenworth is dead. . . . murdered; shot through the head by some unknown person while sitting at his library table.” Thus begins a mystery novel once sensationally popular and now, mystifyingly, almost completely unknown. The Leavenworth Case (1878) by Anna Katharine Green is a milestone of the genre. Wilkie Collins, Arthur Conan Doyle,…
According to The Daily Progress, the Albemarle County School District in Virginia has decided that “A Study In Scarlet” is an inappropriate story for sixth graders. The main reason for the Holmes mystery appearing before the board is that the book presents Mormons in an unflattering way. They say that the book will be added…
Trends may come and trends may go (though I’ve got a case of Pet Rocks stashed in the basement for when they make a comeback). One recent publishing trend that may have already seen its heyday come and go is the so-called mashup novel.The first of these, apparently, was the rather popular Pride and Prejudice…
“It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of London.” —Sherlock Holmes, “The Red-Headed League” London is the specialty tour capital of the world. Walking tours can be found devoted to everything from Dickensian pubs to Royal Wedding sites, from Jack the Ripper to Harry Potter. This time, I went in…
This Christmas, we get to see the second Sherlock Holmes film featuring Robert Downey, Jr. as the great detective. I know many people disliked the first film for all of its modernization of the character. I wasn’t one of them. I enjoyed Downey’s take on Holmes (and Jude Law’s version of Watson) and look forward…
I had only been in Japan for a couple of days, but I had already perfected my answer to the constant question: why are you studying Japanese? My answer: because I like Japanese detective fiction. Which always leads to discussions about how I got to know about Japanese detective fiction, etc. But one day, I…
